Six generations of mithai
Sheikh Abdul Wahid was the father of S. Abdul Khaliq, who was the grandfather of Farrukh Ahmed — the sixth generation, and the man running the business today. By family account our ancestors made sweets for the Mughal court, and in 1830 the family opened its first shop at the Ghanta Ghar in Delhi.
We say 1830 because that is what has been handed down. We have not found a deed or a ledger that fixes the year, and we would rather say so than claim a precision we cannot show. What is not in doubt is that the shop stood beside the Ghanta Ghar, that Old Delhi knew its halwa well enough to name it after the clock tower, and that the recipes made there are the ones we still work from. That story is written up here.
What crossed the border in 1947 was not a building or a brand. It was a way of judging a pan — when the fermentation is right, when the milk has reduced far enough, the sound a pan makes just before it catches. None of that goes into a recipe, and five generations of ustads have handed it on in person. That is what you are actually buying.
Mithai in Karachi and Lahore
What we make
Traditional mithai and halwa, made to recipes that came out of a shop beside the Ghanta Ghar in Delhi and reached this kitchen through five generations of ustads. Ten branches across Karachi and Lahore, and most orders ready within twenty-four hours.
Our habshi halwa takes about nine hours in the pan and there is no way to shorten it that produces the same thing. That is roughly the standard we hold everything else to.
Most of what we sell is bought for an occasion — a wedding, Eid, a birth, an aqiqah, a Takmeel-e-Quran, or simply not arriving at someone’s house empty-handed. Each of those wants something different, and the catalogue pages below go through what to send and how much.
What people order most:
Since standardising our recipes into a documented system, the two hundredth box of an order matches the first. The judgement that cannot be written down — reading a colour, hearing a pan — still sits with the fifteen people training in our kitchen.
Boxes, platters and gifting
Mithai moves in two ways: boxes given to households, and platters put out at a gathering. They want different things on them, and getting that wrong is the most common mistake we see.
What we put together:
Where to find us
Ten shops. All Karachi branches take orders on 0333 2 648424; both Lahore branches on 0329 1648 424.
Karachi: Khayaban-e-Shamsheer (Khadda Market), Clifton, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 10, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 6, DHA Seher, DHA Badar, Bahadurabad, North Nazimabad
Lahore: DHA Y-Block (Phase 3) & DHA Phase 5
Full addresses are on our branch locations page. Halwa puri runs at Bahadurabad every morning and at Clifton on Sundays — details here.
How quickly we can make it
Most orders, including large ones, are ready within 24 hours. Above roughly 500 kg, or where packaging needs designing, allow 48.
Which means the household somebody remembered the night before a wedding is a phone call, not a crisis. The part worth doing early is deciding who gets what — that always takes longer than the making.
Shop NowFAQs
Yes. Our online shop delivers across Karachi and Lahore, and orders are made fresh rather than taken from stock.
Shop Now
Yes, across the city, from our two DHA branches — Y-Block in Phase 3 and Shop 88 in Phase 5.
To arrange delivery, call 0329 1648 424, or 0333 391 6725 for larger and corporate orders.
Less than most people expect. Most orders are ready within 24 hours, even in wedding season. Above roughly 500 kg, or where packaging has to be designed and printed, allow 48. Production is rarely the constraint — deciding who gets which box usually takes longer than making it.
Yes — custom packaging, printed cards and boxes matched to an occasion, for weddings, engagements, births, corporate gifting and Eid. Printing has a longer lead time than the mithai does, so raise it on the first call rather than the last.
Yes — for baat pakki, mangni, mehndi, the main event and the walima. The question worth answering first is how much: count households rather than guests, since one family receives one box. Our wedding mithai guide works through quantities, what travels, and the mistakes that cause a late panic.
Habshi Halwa, Sohan Halwa, Gulab Jamun, Barfi, Kaju Katli, Chum Chum, Bounty Pera, Rose Pera and Patisa. The habshi halwa is the one we are known for, and the one that takes nine hours.
It depends entirely on the type, and it matters more than most people realise when a box has to travel.
Habshi halwa, badam pak and kajoo pak keep around a month without refrigeration — these are what to send to another city. Barfi, peda and khoya-based mithai are best within a few days. Anything with fresh cream or chhena, such as rus malai and rabri, should be treated as same-day.